We have clear lines of communication with the teachers and have gotten involved wherever necessary to further her educational experience:
Extra Parent-Teacher conferences. Check.
Meetings with the Principal. Check.
Gift and Talented Coordinator meeting in our home. Check.
But the second kid? Ha. Pretty much dropped him off the first day of school in the hands of his incredibly wonderful and capable Kindergarten teacher and said, "Here he is. Do whatever you think will work with him."
So, it was a bit of a surprise yesterday, when I was having a casual conversation with his teacher and she mentioned, "They asked if you were willing to have him skip a grade next year."
Huh?
We are still working out the details on who exactly "they" are and I had to sign some paperwork to allow all the necessary prodding, poking, and evaluating of him that go into such a decision.
Our first reaction is to only do grade skipping as a last resort. He's the happiest and most easy-going kid in the universe - he loves school, loves his teacher, loves his classmates. Why mess with that?
Anyone else out there skipped a grade? Was it good? bad? I guess if we are going to do it, this is the year to do it (Kindergarten into 2nd grade) But still. It seems a bit extreme.
Besides, won't that make him smaller for football?
(that's a joke - I haven't even watched a complete football game in over 20 years!)
3 comments:
My sister Maggie made that same skip. I'll ask, but as far as I've ever known, it didn't phase her a bit. There is that bit though about girls maturing faster than boys. I think you're right about doing it earlier rather than later if you're going to do it. The less the kids know/feel about what skipping a grade really means, the less of an effect it can have on their ego/personality.
I went from the middle of first to the middle of second--we also moved over that Christmas, so it was going to be a change either way.
Reading: I was so on top of everything. And every task that had anything to do with reading, art, or writing.
Math: it took me until 7th grade to catch up to speed completely. I did ok--Bs, mostly--but I sometimes had no clue. PErhaps this would have been true either way.
Socially: I was a social moron until at least 5th grade. And since then, I've been ok.
But this was back in the day when "gifted and talented" meant "savant" instead of just really advanced academically. I would have been bored if I'd stayed in my class, and that would have eventually led to behavior problems.
The guys I know who made the jump fared worse than the girls--socially, not academically. I was technically a year ahead, but mom did that before first grade (i skipped kindergarten) so i never really noticed it. I could have skipped another grade, still been at the top academically, and still an outcast socially. I actually hung out with the people in the grade ahead of me my whole time in school even though I was always the youngest person in my class..
But ... there is nothing more destructive than a bored gifted kid, and I'll do almost anything to avoid my kid being That One. (Actually, I'm having that issue with the Boy right now ... sigh.) I don't know if I'd skip a grade, though.
good luck figuring it out.
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